Zion Teacher Strike Deadline Nears

District Says Who Gets Raise, Not How Much Is Issue

January 28, 1999|By Amanda Beeler, Tribune Staff Writer.

With a teachers strike looming, the board of Zion School District 6 mailed letters to parents, staff members and registered voters Wednesday explaining why it thinks the bargaining process has been unsuccessful.

District 6 Supt. Jim Taylor said he is optimistic an agreement will be reached before Monday's strike date, but he added the board wanted to inform the community about the negotiations.

School administrators and Zion Education Association representatives have expressed confidence that an agreement is forthcoming and have said both sides have agreed to a 13.5 percent salary increase over a three-year contract.

The district's 220 teachers and teacher aides have been working without a contract since summer.

Though salary increases have been decided, the two sides are at odds over how the district has proposed distributing raises.

Traditionally unions have created their own salary schedules, and union president Don Dean has said it is not something the union plans to give up.

District 6's business manager, Lynn Carlson, agreed that the salary schedule is usually established by the union, but he said, "the board felt there were some teachers that were not getting their fair share and there were others that were getting more than their fair share."

The salary increases agreed to at the last negotiating session would raise the average teacher salary to $54,000 in the final year of the contract, according to the letter.

The letter also accuses the union of releasing inaccurate information about school funds and refusing to update employees about the negotiation process.

Until the notice to strike was filed, Taylor had declined to speak publicly about the contract discussions, saying he did not want to negotiate through the media.

Union negotiator Mark Reinstein said he did not let letters like the one mailed Wednesday disrupt his work toward a settlement.

"What letters like that tend to do is make the letter writers feel good, and it only inflames and fuels a fire that is out there," he said. "My job whenever we next meet is to get a settlement. That is my only focus right now."

No talks had been scheduled as of Wednesday, but Taylor and Dean said they hope a meeting will take place sometime Sunday.

"If there is no school on Monday, we will notify students like we do when there is a snow day," Taylor said.

In addition to notifying radio stations, Taylor said each school has answering machines that can play recorded messages and a phone tree is in place so parents can inform one another about possible school closures.